The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-07-09


 power, and their perambulAtory will, discretion or whim is the power that the constitution has delegated to con- gress alone. This Is violation both of the constitution, and ot the fnnda- mental legal axiom, "DelegataS aoa poteSt de{e9dre."
 The act, or alleged act, is unconsti- tutional in attempting to blend or unite in & commission legislative, judi cial and executive powers. Some of these powers are wholly beyond the authority of congress itself. No one will seriously contend that, under the power to regulate commerce, the con- stitution has granted to congress the various common law powers, reserved to the states, of establishing statutes regulating descents and distributions, and the requisites of wills, and a crim- inal code establishing crimes and their punishments. Yet the powers at tempted to be grasped by this bill, and conferred ona peripatetic commission, at every point trench upon and run into the reserved powers of the states, of which those enumerated are but { small part. It has been determined by the supreme court itself. in it's better days, that the federal government has no common law criminal jurisdiction whatever, and that il is without com mon law civil jurisdiction except such as has been given it bv the several acts of each state, which acts differ greatly in different states. But this rcvom- tionary interstate commerce hiii at tempts to set up a commission whose fiat shall be alike authoritative in every state and territory. and equip it with powers which congress itself has not. The law does not prescribe to the commissioners their duties, or limit their acts. They are authorized to enforce. alter or suspend its provis- ions at will. The whole regulation of interstate commerce is placed in their hands, and their simple judgment or caprice is made the common car riers' law of the Union. The rccog- nized teaching of the common law for centuries has been that "priVatc prop erty. affected with n public use k limited in the charges for its use to lNttNpihAHAN NVlii sNlI Alti- thew Hale hays down the principle that "whcre private property is at- fccted with II public use, il ceases to be iHrtS JDrtedH only. and the owners cannot take arbitrary and excessive rates, but the charges must be req somble." If congress had embraced this principle in the bill, and through it's committees established rates which should not be exceeded in any case, that in itself would have been to cara'v the principle further than has ever been done by the British parliament. it having always been deemed sufli- ciont to rely upon the remedies at- forded in the courts under the rules provided by the common law. But to deliver the common carrier bodily into the hands of a nondcscript com mission of governmental minions, sit ting as spies upon all his affairs. com polling him to disclose the secrets of his business to them, clothed as they are with the power of ccasclcss inter- meddlings and annoyances, and with out responsibility on their part to anybody or anything except the power that appoints them, k not only grossly unconstitutional, but is ab- horrent to reason and savers of the widest madness of the commune. If congress can thus seize and run the railroads of the country. it will re- quire but small additional stretch of lawless power to seize and operate the telegraph and telephone lines, then the strcet-cars, and finally the street. corner peanut stands. Then will the average American congressman, at last, have reached the level of his ca pacities, and struck business he is admirably fitted to conduct.
 1 Unconstitutional in its attempt to usurp the reserved power of the sev- eral states to regulate their own in- ternal commerce: unconstitutional in its attempt to do away with trial by jury; unconstitutional in its at tempt to trample on the rights of witnesses; unconstitutional in it's at tempt to delegate to commission powers delegated by the constitution to congress alone; and unconstitutional in its attempt to combine in one tramp committee legislative, judicial and ex- ecutive powers. The whole act, or alleged act, is loaded down with un- constitutionalities enough to invali- date if hundred fold. The first test of it before a court of competent juris- diction will result in it's being de- clared invalid, null and void on con stitutional grounds. But, were 1t model of accurate conformity to the great fundamental law of the republic, its own iDcoDgruous, monstrous and preposterous provisions would for ever prevent its enforcement and ren- der it standing target for the finger of derisioD, & colossal wayside mOuu-